1. Technical Field
An aspect of the invention is related to an apparatus and a method for generating a two-dimensional image of an object using an optical coherence tomography (OCT) optical system.
2. Related Art
There is known an optical tomographic image photographing apparatus (Optical Coherence Tomography: OCT) which has an interference optical system and photographs a tomographic image of an object. The optical interference optical system of this apparatus splits a light flux emitted from a light source into a measurement light flux and a reference light flux. This optical interference optical system then guides the measurement light flux to an object, while guiding the reference light flux to a reference optical system. Subsequently, the optical interference optical system combines the measurement light flux, reflected on the object, with the reference light flux, to obtain interference light, and thereafter makes a light receiving device receive this interference light. This apparatus is used for, for example, obtaining a tomographic image of a living body such as an eyeball or skin.
An apparatus of related art is an apparatus in which either a scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) or an infrared camera and an interference optical system are combined (refer to JP-A-2008-29467). An examiner decides a position for obtaining a tomographic image while observing a front image of an object.
In the case where the SLO or the infrared camera is provided in the apparatus, the number of optical systems increases. This brings about cost increase.
Also, recently, a method for obtaining a front image without using such a configuration is disclosed (refer to U.S. Pat. No. 7,301,644). In this method, the front image is obtained by scanning an object two-dimensionally by a measurement light flux and integrating a spectral intensity of an interference signal obtained from a light receiving device on each point in X-Y directions.